MSCA doctoral network

MSCA doctoral network (SPARK) PhD position in numerical photonics

University faculty : Sciences
Department : Physics Department
Grade : researcher
Contract : fixed term contract
Category : scientific personnel
Reference : 101310184 — SPARK

Responsabilities

The Lobet research team part of the NISM institute of the Science Faculty of the University of Namur (Belgium), is looking for a PhD candidate part of a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) doctoral network SPARK project on the topic of "Optical Vortex Generation Using Twisted Bilayer Photonic Crystals" to perform theoretical and numerical calculations, as well as experimental fabrication and characterization in the novel domain of “ moiré optics”, in collaboration with Prof. M. Piccardo (INESC MN) and Prof. Pol Van Dorpe (IMEC).

Moiré photoincs is the emerging branch of photonics studying novel platforms made of two photonic crystals disoriented relative to each other, with a tunable rotation angle. They are directly inspired by twistronics, investigating the electronic properties of twisted 2D materials. The latter emerging field is boosting solid-state physics research because unconventional properties such as flat bands in the electronic band structure, vanishing Dirac velocity of electrons and enhanced density of states are evidenced at low twist angles. Those platforms demonstrated electronically tunable superconducting and insulating phases as well as topological properties.

Driven by the electronic-photonic analogy, twisted structures start appearing in photonics with similar extremely flat bands in their photonic band structure and consequently slow light properties. However, twistoptics is a nascent field, full of fundamental, numerical and technological challenges.

The project willexplore the generation of optical vortices carrying orbital angular momentum from twisted photonic crystal structures.The goal is to design twisted photonic crystals to realize robust vortex radiation.

Secondmentsinclude3 months at IMEC for nanofabrication exposure and 6 months atINESC MN (M. Piccardo) for structured-light characterization based on off-axis digital holography.By producing robust vortex beams via twisted photonic platforms,the doctoral candidate contributes to one of the research objectives of the doctoral network SPARK (SPARK MSCA Doctoral Network),which is to demonstratemetamaterial-enabled structured light generation through controlled angularmomentum.

Over the course of the thesis, the candidate will develop skills in theoretical modelling and simulation of twisted photonic crystals (UNamur), nanofabrication of photonic structures (IMEC), and structured-light characterization (INESC MN), gained through secondments as well as shared expertise with the whole SPARK doctoral network consortium. An ongoing close collaboration is active on moiré photonics with Prof. Benoit Hackens at UCLouvain.

The SPARK network is coordinated by Humeyra Caglayan (TU/e EE) and brings together Nicolò Maccaferri (UMU), Iñigo Liberal (UPNA), Paloma Arroyo Huidobro (UAM), Marco Piccardo (INESC MN and Técnico Lisboa), Michaël Lobet (UNamur), Riccardo Sapienza (Imperial), and Ahmed H. Dorrah (TU/e AP). It will hire 15 phD students that will work closely to advance spatiotemporal photonic technologies.

Research environment:

The Michaël Lobet's Research Team | UNamur, part of the NISM institute (Namur Institute of Structured Matter), has a long-standing expertise in theoretical and numerical physics, especially in photonics. The direct work environment is composed of experienced researchers such as Prof. Michaël Lobet (PI for the current call), Prof. Luc Henrard, Prof. Olivier Deparis and Prof. Alexandre Mayer.

The candidate will benefit from the scientific network of the lab including of several high-ranked universities, such as Harvard, UPenn, Stanford, University of Navarra, Tsinghua University, DTU,… Close collaborations with the doctoral network member are foreseen, on top of the announced secondments at INESC MN and IMEC.

The lab members have access to state-of-the-art HPC Tier 2 facilities through the CECI consortium. The capabilities of the CECI clusters cover a range of facilities including very fast CPUs and GPU accelerators. We also have access to supercomputer facilities of the regional Tier-1 (Zenobe) and projects can be submitted to the EuroHPC initiative.

Over the years, the lab developed either homemade codes (rigorous couple wave analysis, plane wave expansions, finite-difference time domain method, etc.), know-how using open softwares under GNU license (MEEP, MPB, etc.) or commercial solutions (Lumerical FDTD, Comsol Multiphysics) required to perform the present project. Moreover, INESC MN and IMEC facilities are state-of-the-art for fabrication an